beverage packages

[plug and chain]

I will be cruising on Sun Princess from Perth to Singapore on 27th Nov 2019 is it worth doing the beverage page , can I do it for just one adult in a cabin of two or is it best to pay as i go.

Any suggestions

Thanks

Plug and chain

 

[GUT2407]

Ou can buy for just one, but can’t share, worth it or not depends on your drinking habits.

[jomf]

We find the “is it worth it” limit to be around seven drinks per day. That includes non alcoholic drinks as well. If you feel you are likely to drink more than that, then it’s worth it.

We beat it even on port days!

[Brisbane41]

It is not financially viable at all and a massive rip off and waste of money. I love to drink, but there is no normal human who can drink the amount of the drinks package and still lead a normal healthy life.

 

After years of cruising I have calculated it is much cheaper to get drinks individually or to buy wine by the bottle and have it kept at the bar. This works out to be a more financial sound method of doing it. Simply load up your on board account with gift credit before you leave and watch how it goes.

 

Many people make a lot of mathematical mistakes when it comes to alcohol packages and they can never justify their claims with actual figures that they have drank that much. What the package is with its daily cost fails to take into any day when you are off the ship and drinking less of your quota. That is where the cruise lines make their money because if your cruise has 3 or 4 ports of call then they have already made a profit on the drinks package and conned you out of money for those days.

 

If you look at the costs of the drink, the costs of the bottles of wine and add them up and plan to purchase what you will drink based on your normal day to day habits you will find it is much cheaper to get drinks per glass or by the bottle.

[OzKiwiJJ]

We find it is no longer cost effective for us even on cruises with lots of sea days. However it depends on your drinking patterns. Do you prefer cocktails around the pool but don't drink much with dinner? If so, then you really do have to consider those port days when you're off the ship.  Or do you only have one or two cocktails at night plus wine/beer with meals. In this case a lot depends on how good your waiters are as to whether you'll be able to get more than one glass of wine per meal. That is one of the reasons we stopped getting the package, plus the wines by the glass didn't suit our preferences.

[SuitesRbest]

15 hours ago, plug and chain said:

I will be cruising on Sun Princess from Perth to Singapore on 27th Nov 2019 is it worth doing the beverage page , can I do it for just one adult in a cabin of two or is it best to pay as i go.

Any suggestions

Thanks

Plug and chain

 

What is the price of the bev package on your sailing?

[kidzplay]

Depends on what you drink and how much, it doesn't take long for them to add up though, even looking at after 5 pm perhaps 2 drinks on deck, 2 with dinner and the 1 in the show and 4 or 5 in the evening its surprising how they add up and that's not counting sea days, break even is probably 7 drinks a day, fresh air and plenty of food you would be surprised how much you do drink sometimes, also be aware of the limits, I believe Princess cuts you off after 12 drinks where as RCL is unlimited.

[Suzbluz]

As others say it all depends onhow much you want to drink. Brisbane41 always responds that no human can drink enough to justify a drinks package and they are a massive rip off but I disagree. On our last cruise we paid $63 a day and easily got our moneys worth.  I'm on holidays and let my hair down for 10 days and for me it makes sense but if it was $20 more then I would pay as I go. Its not something someone else can really decide for you. Have a great cruise!

[SuitesRbest]

8 hours ago, Suzbluz said:

As others say it all depends onhow much you want to drink. Brisbane41 always responds that no human can drink enough to justify a drinks package and they are a massive rip off but I disagree. On our last cruise we paid $63 a day and easily got our moneys worth.  I'm on holidays and let my hair down for 10 days and for me it makes sense but if it was $20 more then I would pay as I go. Its not something someone else can really decide for you. Have a great cruise!

I totally concur, we absolutely let our hair down and a $63 drink package is not only value for us it is also piece of mind not getting bill shock (which has happened and it was sickening) . Yes, if it was around the $80 mark then you would have to think twice.

[SuitesRbest]

16 hours ago, kidzplay said:

Depends on what you drink and how much, it doesn't take long for them to add up though, even looking at after 5 pm perhaps 2 drinks on deck, 2 with dinner and the 1 in the show and 4 or 5 in the evening its surprising how they add up and that's not counting sea days, break even is probably 7 drinks a day, fresh air and plenty of food you would be surprised how much you do drink sometimes, also be aware of the limits, I believe Princess cuts you off after 12 drinks where as RCL is unlimited.

This limit thing is typical of the Carnival group and they have the most expensive package's. I think it is a penny pitching exercise once again by their bunch of cruise lines company's. RCL all the way for me.

[Brisbane41]

9 hours ago, Suzbluz said:

As others say it all depends onhow much you want to drink. Brisbane41 always responds that no human can drink enough to justify a drinks package and they are a massive rip off but I disagree. On our last cruise we paid $63 a day and easily got our moneys worth.  I'm on holidays and let my hair down for 10 days and for me it makes sense but if it was $20 more then I would pay as I go. Its not something someone else can really decide for you. Have a great cruise!

I have done the calculations and it is not mathematically possible to come out on top with the package unless people are cheating the package like one half of a couple getting it and claiming drinks for their partner.

 

I stand by the fact that no human being could drink that much. Certainly not someone who has a healthy body and is going to live a long and healthy life. Drinking that much not only damages the liver it also kills brain cells destroys your entire body and leads to all sorts of extreme health risks.

 

There is only one cruise line where I found the package value for money and that was Celebrity Cruises in the year 2013. I have not cruise Celebrity since that year.

 

The only time Princess beverage package was worth it was when they had the $10 per day soda package and you purchased the spirits to mix with coke.

 

No matter how you crunch the numbers it is just not financially viable unless you are cheating the system (with a couple) or killing yourself with alcohol.

[SuitesRbest]

8 minutes ago, Brisbane41 said:

I have done the calculations and it is not mathematically possible to come out on top with the package unless people are cheating the package like one half of a couple getting it and claiming drinks for their partner.

 

I stand by the fact that no human being could drink that much. Certainly not someone who has a healthy body and is going to live a long and healthy life. Drinking that much not only damages the liver it also kills brain cells destroys your entire body and leads to all sorts of extreme health risks.

 

There is only one cruise line where I found the package value for money and that was Celebrity Cruises in the year 2013. I have not cruise Celebrity since that year.

 

The only time Princess beverage package was worth it was when they had the $10 per day soda package and you purchased the spirits to mix with coke.

 

No matter how you crunch the numbers it is just not financially viable unless you are cheating the system (with a couple) or killing yourself with alcohol.

Ok, these packages cover a range of products not only alcoholic beverages. My wife and I will have 2-3 bottles of water and maybe 2 specialty coffee's a day. This is 4-5 beverages each already without alcohol (a value of no less than $20 each right there and I am swaying on the lowest cost here) Not to mention the cans of coke no sugar we may have by the pool in the afternoon and on sea days.

 

4 cocktails through out the evening each (@ a $12 average=$48 each) will put us over the $62 package that we have purchased on the up coming cruise (RCL), already at a $68 cost if we did not have a beverage package. My math over a 14 day cruise consuming the very modest number of drinks saves us $168 right there.

 

This is in no way excessive and killing my liver. The above beverages would be a very modest cruise day for us.

[Brisbane41]

29 minutes ago, SuitesRbest said:

Ok, these packages cover a range of products not only alcoholic beverages. My wife and I will have 2-3 bottles of water and maybe 2 specialty coffee's a day. This is 4-5 beverages each already without alcohol (a value of no less than $20 each right there and I am swaying on the lowest cost here) Not to mention the cans of coke no sugar we may have by the pool in the afternoon and on sea days.

 

4 cocktails through out the evening each (@ a $12 average=$48 each) will put us over the $62 package that we have purchased on the up coming cruise (RCL), already at a $68 cost if we did not have a beverage package. My math over a 14 day cruise consuming the very modest number of drinks saves us $168 right there.

 

This is in no way excessive and killing my liver. The above beverages would be a very modest cruise day for us.

Well on Princess it is different and is what I based my calculations on. Not Royal Caribbean. In any event it appears to have changed as there is no ability to buy beverage packages (all inclusive) for a Princess cruise I have booked for October so I have no way of checking the prices of theirs.

 

Just remember with the package is that it is charged on a day to day basis whether you are drinking that day or not. Depending on the cruise there may be days where you are off the ship for up to 8 hours in a port or getting a slightly earlier night due to a big port the next day. These small things make a big impact on the cost per day.

 

Given that Royal Caribbean is owner of Celebrity it would not surprise me if they had a better deal than Princess.

 

By evening I have moved on to fortified wine or whiskey, and other spirits as I find I sleep better with that stuff without the need to constantly wake up all night heading to the toilet.

[Suzbluz]

35 minutes ago, SuitesRbest said:

Ok, these packages cover a range of products not only alcoholic beverages. My wife and I will have 2-3 bottles of water and maybe 2 specialty coffee's a day. This is 4-5 beverages each already without alcohol (a value of no less than $20 each right there and I am swaying on the lowest cost here) Not to mention the cans of coke no sugar we may have by the pool in the afternoon and on sea days.

 

4 cocktails through out the evening each (@ a $12 average=$48 each) will put us over the $62 package that we have purchased on the up coming cruise (RCL), already at a $68 cost if we did not have a beverage package. My math over a 14 day cruise consuming the very modest number of drinks saves us $168 right there.

 

This is in no way excessive and killing my liver. The above beverages would be a very modest cruise day for us.

This is similar to how I get my value for money. Plus by buying in advance in Aussie dollars inc grats on RC it is even better value. 

[SuitesRbest]

1 hour ago, Suzbluz said:

This is similar to how I get my value for money. Plus by buying in advance in Aussie dollars inc grats on RC it is even better value. 

Very correct, at the moment they are offering an unlimited beverage package on our upcoming RCL cruise for $61.45 AUD per day including grats!!

 

[Bpos]

10 hours ago, SuitesRbest said:

Very correct, at the moment they are offering an unlimited beverage package on our upcoming RCL cruise for $61.45 AUD per day including grats!!

 

That is a steal, on Ovation last week it was either $78 or $72 ( one or the other) USD to buy on the ship.  Not hard to consume a few drinks to make it worthwhile when a can of good beer was $8.25 USD and a glass of NZ wine $12 USD a glass.